


Dragons & Fire

by o_ver_watch



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Action/Adventure, F/M, Fanfiction, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-31
Updated: 2016-08-20
Packaged: 2018-07-28 10:51:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7637266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/o_ver_watch/pseuds/o_ver_watch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a devastating raid on Overwatch's Gibraltar base, Talon kidnaps two of its members. The 20-strong team then invades the Talon bunker where the two are held and rescue them, taking them back to their new makeshift base in Hanamura. However, as the threat continues, the team realizes its newest member is in much more danger than they originally thought. Master bowman Hanzo Shimada takes an interest in this woman after a series of dangerous encounters cause her to come into her own.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Savior

A chill seeped through your exposed undersuit and crawled up your spine. Only fragments of your armor still clung to your body, broken from repetitive bashing during interrogation. You shifted your aching head so you could see across the room, where the soldier Jack sat, bound as you were, with his back against the concrete wall. The light in his visor had even seemed to dim as the days grew longer. Neither of you were sure how long you had been pent up in this room, occasionally thrown around by a Talon agent asking for intel, with only the fidgeting light from the cracks in your door to see by.

  
“Jack,” you whispered. You hadn’t had water in so long, it hurt to speak. “Jack, wake up.”

  
The soldier’s head bobbed weakly. You continued calling his name quietly until he lifted his chin from his chest.

  
“Yeah, kid?” he replied gruffly.

  
You shifted your wrists behind you. They were painfully clad together by heavy iron chains that dug into the floor. “Do you think they’re coming?”

  
He grunted a laugh. “They better be. I led those monkeys through their best years, and then some.”

  
You smiled quickly, so your lips wouldn’t crack. You spent most of your time imagining who it would be to bust down your door and carry you away. You and Tracer had become very good friends over the past six months, and Zenyatta enjoyed your sense of humor, though you doubted he’d be doing much busting of anything. Reinhardt was probably the only one strong enough to break down your six-inch-thick concrete door, however. You’d be glad to hear his booming voice again.

  
“I don’t get it,” Jack said suddenly.

  
You lifted your eyes to him. “Get what?”

  
“Talon,” he answered. “They had access to our base. All of our information. Hell, they could have wiped us out entirely. Why would they kidnap two of us and interrogate us for intel? Why you? No offense, but you don’t know much about us yet.”

  
You barely knew everyone’s names. “I don’t know.” Laughing, you said, “Why don’t you bring that up the next time someone comes in here?”

  
Jack grunted his laugh again. “Maybe I will.”

  
The two of you fell into silence again. You stared at a blood spot in the middle of the floor from when you had nicked an agent with a shard of ice. It had taken all of your energy to summon the small thing, and you couldn’t even take an eye out. The beatings had taken their toll on you. Jack, too, it seemed, though he would never show it in front of Talon.

  
As if he could read your mind, he cleared his throat and said, “Don’t try anything again. They’ll only hurt you more.”

  
You nodded sadly. You had previously tried melting through the chains in the floor, but you couldn’t get your energy up. You had never felt so tired in your life. Making fire had never been so hard as it had in the past few days.  
After a while, you started to doze. You thought you heard a beating drum in the distance. You grinned slightly as it lulled you to sleep. You had no idea your heartbeat could be so soothing.

  
But then it came closer.

  
The drums turned to footsteps and startled you from your sleep. You looked to Jack, who had tensed against his chains. “Asleep,” he hissed under his breath. “Be asleep.”

  
You shut your eyes, still as a stone, and waited.

  
The door squealed on its hinges as light flooded your room. A cold, dark feeling swept the room. You knew there was something different about this one. You could feel Jack’s uncertainty coming off of him in waves.

  
You opened one eye slightly. In the doorway stood a cloaked man in heavy boots and… a metallic skull mask.You squeezed your eyes tightly again, though you knew he hadn’t fallen for your trick.

  
The sound of electricity came to your ears. Your eyes opened to the sight of a pronged rod, sparks flying out of the end of it. You gasped and sat up, pushing yourself back into the wall behind you. “No, no, no no,” you whimpered as he came closer. “No, no, please, no.”

  
Jack began a protest as the rod was thrust into your stomach. Your muscles contracted all at once, squeezing a scream out of you, and still the metal dug further into your skin. You gritted your teeth and kicked your legs. You swung your head back as you concentrated on pushing it out of you. Once a temperature-related sensation was yours, you could control it. Out, out, out, you thought. You pulled it into a small area in your stomach, just where the prongs bit into you. Pushing it for a moment longer, it dissipated. The sparks on the rod even disappeared. However, that wasn’t the end of your pain. Your abdomen still contorted and jolted, your breaths coming in uneasy and unsatisfying.

  
“Hm,” Reaper grunted, admiring the rod. “Interesting.”

  
“Don’t you put that thing on her again, Reyes,” Jack snarled. “I’ve got whatever you’re looking for.”

  
He shook his head, still staring at you. “Not anymore.” He lifted his arm suddenly and brought the rod down on your temple, sending you crashing onto the ground. You heard Jack shouting and saw your blood pooling around you before you went out.

. . .

You woke some time later--maybe a day, maybe more--to an otherwise empty room. Your head throbbed unbearably, and your limbs felt numb. You could barely move enough to see the shackles where Jack had been before. Your heart jumped into your throat as your eyes darted around the room, searching for a trace of him to no avail. You gritted your teeth and slid an aching leg beneath your torso. Slowly, the other followed suit, and you pulled yourself to a kneeling position.

  
Jack could have been anywhere. He could have been alive, dead, or somewhere in between, but you had no idea which of the three. And so your mind wandered. What had happened after Reaper knocked you out? Did he kill Jack then, and drag him out? Or did he take him somewhere else first, again attempting to beat some answers out of him, and finally decide he wasn’t worth it anymore?

  
Whatever it was, you needed to find the answer out. The back of your neck began to tingle warmly, heat trickling down your spine and into your bones. The temperature began to rise quickly, and soon, each and every one of your veins was overflowing with fire. You drew in a deep breath, lungs pressed on by broken ribs, and released it. A small light began to form before your chest. The slivers of armor still present shined in its presence. The light expanded until individual flames became visible. You were surprised you had the strength to conjure up even a small fireball such as this.

  
Below it, you spotted rips and tears in your undersuit where knives had bitten into you. Two holes stood where the electric rod had punctured your stomach. Staring at them only made them hurt more, so you returned your attention to the fire in front of you. You guided it away from you, pushing it with an imaginary limb, orange light cast upon a ground covered in blood spatters. They lessened toward the center of the room, but became more frequent once you neared Jack’s corner. Again, there were many drops and spatters long since dried. You sighed. You didn’t know what you expected to find. Nothing could have comforted you other than finding him.

  
Suddenly, you heard thundering footsteps outside your door. You barely extinguished the flames before a large man burst in. You hunkered back into the wall, shutting your eyes and bracing for the pain. However, no pain came. The man jerked your wrists toward him and unlocked the shackles.

  
“Up,” he commanded.

  
Puzzled, you looked up at him. The Talon insignia sat upon his shoulder, and a gun on his belt like every other agent that had come to interrogate you.

  
The man reached down and grabbed a fistful of hair. You yelped as he wrenched you to your feet, hissing into your ear, “Reyes needs a word.”

  
You resisted heavily until he threw you out the door. You skidded on the concrete floor, head burning. Several other Talon agents were waiting to escort you to wherever Reaper was waiting.  
“Walk,” the first said intensely.

  
You picked yourself up off the dirty floor and began walking, legs shaking beneath your weight. The agents formed a tight circle around you, constantly tossing you around to keep you moving. You moved through a mass of winding hallways, each dirtier and more broken than the last. Rusty pipes hung exposed from the ceilings, and more than half the lights were out.

  
Your heart thumped harder as the walk dragged on and on. It became hard to breathe at the thought of Reaper interrogating you himself. Even if the Talon agents had been harder on you than he had, there was something about the way he looked at you, into you, that made you dread him.

  
“Wait,” one of them said. The group stopped.

  
“What is it?” another asked, irritated. “We can’t stop for every rat that walks across your shoes.”

  
A few of them laughed.

  
“No, I mean it, I heard some--”

  
An arrow squealed past your head and took out the man who was talking. You snapped your head over your shoulder just in time to see three more scatter in your direction, pinning themselves to the heads of half the agents around you. The two remaining scrambled for their guns in vain, for a large man had appeared in front of them, taking them both out with a swipe of his bow.

  
“Hanzo?”

  
He nodded. You sighed with relief.

  
His eyes scanned you quickly. “You are hurt much worse than Jack. Can you walk?”

  
You were surprised to hear that. “Yes,” you said. You peered behind him into the empty hall. “Where is everyone else?”

  
“The others are posted along the way. Should I have needed assistance, they would come.” He turned, jerking his head toward a doorway. “Come with me.”

  
You followed him at a hurried walk through a few interlocking rooms. He stopped at each of them, guiding you behind him, to check for more of Talon’s goons. His footsteps made only a small scuffing noise as they grazed the floor. No wonder they sent him after you.

  
As you reentered a hallway, you spotted Genji’s metallic shimmer at the end. You smiled, grateful to see yet another friendly soul. Hanzo led you toward him, the golden ribbon in his hair trailing behind gracefully.

  
A loud bang sounded from behind you. Multiple bullets pierced your skin and sent you crashing to the ground with a scream.

  
“Hanzo!” Genji yelled. “Go! I’ve got (Y/N)!”

  
And so Hanzo sprinted behind you, arrow nocked, and roared something you couldn't understand. Blood pounded in your ears, though you could hear something roaring above it.

  
Genji dropped down to you and flipped you over, his metallic fingers finding a pulse on your neck. “It’s faint…” he whispered. “Hanzo!”

  
Hanzo replied angrily in Japanese. You could see him at the very end of the hallway. He faded away as your vision blackened around the edges.

  
Genji yelled again in their native tongue.

 

You closed your eyes. The world became quiet.

  
Someone’s arms slipped beneath you and hoisted you up. Their breath had a twinge of alcohol laced through it.

  
Lights passed over you, fleeting.

  
Voices collected around you.

  
A flash of brightness came, and then you were asleep.


	2. Additions

“It looks like she’s moving,” a faint, fuzzy voice said hopefully. “Her eyes are… well, I don’t know what they’re doing, really, but do you see it?”

 

“Yes, I do,” another, serene voice mused. “Might you trouble Hanzo for the incense he placed here yesterday? It seemed to create some activity in her, and I’d hope to see it push her through to wakefulness.”

 

“Sure thing, Zen.”

 

You slipped back under.

 

A delightful, smoky scent tickled your nose. It smelled of rich, earthy herbs and like rain. You felt something stretch on your face. Your cheeks? No… lips. Your lips widened into a little grin as images of heavy clouds rolled into your mind. You loved thunderstorms more than anything. The anticipation of the storm had your skin crawling most summer nights. You would wait outside, twilight covering the world in a yellow tint, and stare at the green-gray clouds until they poured themselves into the world.

 

“Oh, look!” the voice from before exclaimed, louder this time. “Is she awake?”

 

“She’s under heavy medication,” a new voice murmured. “I doubt she’ll wake up for another few days.”

 

They both sighed.

 

Later, when it was quieter, you felt something wrap around you. Something warm, soft.

 

“There you go, love. You looked a little cold.”

 

 _Thank you,_ you thought. _I was._

 

You fell asleep again, but in a relatively short time, were awoken by more voices. This time, each was accompanied by its own feeling from a different area around you.

 

“How much more time? I mean… it can’t be healthy for her to be out this long. Right?” The first voice had come again, this time accompanied by a rather… bright sense, pushing in on you from right beside you. “Can’t you take her off of her medication if that’s what’s keeping her out?”

 

“It would be very difficult for her,” the third said solemnly. That one was farther away, and soothing. “With the implants I had to put in, it will not be pleasant for anyone for her to adjust while awake.”

 

At the mention of implants, you felt a very intense vibe float from far away. You could almost imagine this voice as a person flaring their nostrils, arms crossed, disapproving…

 

Much, much later, you felt a tugging sensation in your arm.

 

“I’ll give her some anticonvulsants in a moment,” the soothing voice said. “She’ll still have a bit of trouble waking up.”

 

“We should not have waited this long in the first place,” a low, rumbling voice stated. You felt its intensity, but not as much as before.

 

“It’s all right, big guy. She was just trying to make (Y/N) comfortable,” Tracer said. _Tracer?_ you thought. _That’s right… my friend… how did she get here?_

 

You began to feel an odd tingling in your fingers and toes. It gradually migrated through your entire body, leaving you confused. _Where am I?_ you wondered. _Am I dreaming?_

 

“If this gets rough, hold her down,” Angela murmured sadly.

 

As the tingling intensified, your eyes fluttered open. Dim blue light met your eyes at first, blurred so you couldn’t quite make out what things were. To your right were bundles of beautiful, vibrant colors, and to your left were less impressive ones, moving slightly.

 

“(Y/N), can you hear me?” Tracer whispered.

 

You gazed over to the voice’s source, and grinned when you saw her. Spiky brown hair, orange-lensed goggles, and too many freckles to count, she was all there. She smiled at you.

 

Your mouth tightened as the tingling in your back became severe. It radiated at first, spreading a slight ache throughout your torso and down the back of your legs. Tracer squeezed your hand. You shut your eyes again as the pain worsened. In six different places, forming a half-circle around your left side, it felt as if someone were slowly inching a blade into you. You arched it once your skin started to feel hot against the bed beneath you.

“How long will it take?”

 

Your eyes opened again, only to pinpoint that voice. You had the name on the tip of your tongue, but it took you seeing the tall, built marksman to know his voice as Hanzo’s. For a fleeting second, you wondered why he was in your room, but forgot it as soon as pain shot through your back once again. A groan shot through your gritted teeth, you grabbed the sheets, and everyone jumped forward to help you in some way until they realized they couldn’t, at least not until you began writhing around in search of anything that would quell your suffering.

 

A guttural cry escaped you as your back began spasming uncontrollably. Your muscles knotted and tugged and ripped themselves apart, sending your shoulders and arms convulsing wildly. You felt your bed shift and two hands come down on your biceps, pushing you down into the cushioning, and another two grip your right forearm and keep it straight.

 

“The medicine!” Hanzo shouted.

 

“Hold her still,” Angela said calmly.

 

Your eyes rolled back in your head, another quake violently gripping your back. The taste of blood hit your tongue. As your back arched again, you slammed into someone else’s body hung over yours. The muscles in your torso were stretched so tightly you couldn’t even stand breathing anymore. You felt a pinch in your inner elbow again, and slowly, your muscles stopped seizing, your breaths reached your lungs again, and you fell back to the bed, twitching slightly. You felt the hands that gripped your arms release, and your bed shifted back to normal.

 

“Is it over?” Tracer whispered. Head swimming, you couldn’t tell where she was.

 

“It should be,” Angela murmured back. “At least the worst of it is. No wonder she wasn’t waking up… the implants hadn’t been assimilated yet. I can’t believe it took so long.”

 

“What was the original plan?” Tracer wondered. “I mean, if she would have woken up on her own?”

 

“Well,” the doctor sighed, “I wanted her body to go through that while she was under, so she wouldn’t be consciously feeling much of anything. Then she would wake up, I would put her on mild painkillers, and… it would have been fine. She must have rejected the implants once I stopped her medication.”

 

“Why could you not tell before?” Hanzo asked breathlessly. You wondered if he had been the one restraining you, and decided it must have been. Tracer could never have held you down. But that meant… _Oh, no,_ you thought. You had thrown yourself right into him. It wasn’t your fault, but it still brought a bit of heat to your face.

 

“I didn’t want to poke around and cause the rejection,” Angela explained. “But, even though she had to go through it while awake, she looks to be accepting them now.” She paused, and you felt a hand brush your cheek. “Does she have a fever?” she wondered aloud. The hand moved to your forehead. You blushed even harder knowing that everyone was staring at you. “No… Hm. Well, she just went through a lot. Why don’t you two go get something to eat? You’ve been here all day. I’ll get Zenyatta to help her meditate; she’s always responded to his spiritual approaches than to mine.”

 

“Sounds like a plan,” Tracer decided. She placed her hand on your shoulder. “Bye, love. I hope you feel better.” You heard the three sets of footsteps head toward the front of your room. “C’mon, big guy. You like tea, right?”

 

Hanzo grunted.

 

“I’ll take that as a yes, then.” Her voice disappeared, and your door clicked shut.

  
As soon as it did, you opened your eyes. For once, you took in a deep breath, feeling it fill your body with a soothing coolness you hadn’t felt in what seemed like years. Above you, a blue-tinted lamp hung from the ceiling, spreading a chilling light through your room. When you looked around, however, it was not the same as it had been. Your things had been moved into a strange place. It seemed you had been moved with them.

 

The nightstand beside you was overflowing with flowers. You smiled weakly. _Lilies. They remembered._ The first thing you had told your team about yourself was your favorite flower. And there it was, over and over and over again, orange, red, yellow, stargazer. Balloons dominated the other side of your bed. A few stuffed bears joined them as well.

 

Slowly, you got up the courage to sit. It took most of your strength to push past the shooting pain in the left side of your back. The muscle still twitched uncomfortably, but it was bearable. You scanned the room, spotting most of your things that were in your room before. _Maybe they just moved all of it into a hospital room because I was out so long._

 

One thing did catch you off guard. Your armor rack stood empty in a corner, with not so much as your staff leaning up against it. You ran your hand through your hair and thought deeply about why it could have been gone.

 

A shudder ran down your spine. You remembered looking at yourself in the firelight after Jack had been taken from that cell. Your heart started to race. How could you have forgotten about Jack? Even when Hanzo had found you, you said nothing to him about the man who took you in and mentored you through experimenting with your abilities…

 

You had started to get up when your door creaked open again. The omnic monk Zenyatta glided in, a peaceful glow about the lights in his forehead. “Hello, (Y/N).”

 

“Is Jack okay?” you asked impatiently.

 

He tilted his head. “Why, yes, he is. Recovering a few rooms over.”

 

You sighed. The guilt lifted from your shoulders and you slumped back against your pillows. “I thought I had… abandoned him there,” you confessed.

 

Zenyatta floated closer, pushing the door shut behind him. “Why did you think you abandoned him? You were very much incapacitated, I am told. You could not have abandoned him.”

 

His words were comforting. You found peace whenever he sounded confused; that usually meant you were thinking irrationally. And, of course, you knew you were, but you couldn’t help feeling responsible for what happened. Being unfamiliar with the halls of Gibraltar was what got you captured in the first place. You had run down a corridor you thought was to the armory, but it led to the dormitory wing.

 

“No,” you answered. “I guess I couldn’t have.”

 

You swore you saw him smile. “Now, Dr. Zeigler recommended to me that you sleep, and that we begin incorporating you into our new infrastructure tomorrow.”

 

“New?” you echoed. It all started to make sense. “Is that why…”

 

“Yes, we have moved locations. Gibraltar was too far gone once Talon had vacated. We are at Hanamura now.” He glanced toward the shaded window on the far end of the room. “We have put up a makeshift base attached to the Shimada clan’s old dwellings.”

 

You nodded. The memory of Gibraltar tugged at your heart. When you were taken, you had counted on returning there. More destruction than you thought must have happened after you were gone.

 

“How much do you know of what happened?”

 

You shook your head. “Nothing. I heard I have implants, but…” You gazed down at your limbs. Seeing all flesh, you looked back to him. ”Nobody has told me anything.”

 

Zenyatta nodded. “Would you like me to?”

 

“I suppose so.”

 

He came closer so he was just beside you. He offered you his hand, and you laid it in his. You felt the gentle whirr of his inner workings buzz about your fingertips. “Hanzo carried you out, and Dr. Zeigler healed your more damaging wounds. However, there was a complication.”

 

Your heart jumped. “What was it?”

 

“Worry not. The bullets that had fired into your back were so deep that they had punctured some of the important pathways around your heart. There were six in total. There are six small omnic implants that control blood flow. They are completely self-regulated, and should not cause any more harm to you than when you began to reject them.” He paused. “Since these devices do the jobs of your veins, the surrounding ones will grow weak and die. You will eventually be unable to feel in that general area. The skin may become slightly transparent as well.”

 

You thought you felt your skin tingle on your back, where those few spots of unbearable pain were, forming a half moon on your back. A part of you was relieved it hadn’t been a limb that was replaced. You loved your omnic friends, but you loved being flesh and blood yourself. If that was the only downside, you could handle it. You swallowed and nodded. “Is that all?”

 

“As with Genji’s implanted armor, these will release steam if you are to ever overheat. They will not make a very large impact, but they will help.” He covered your hand with his other. “Are you troubled by this?”

 

You shook your head, grinning. “No, actually. I think I’ll be okay.”

  
His lights got a bit brighter. “Then shall we meditate?”


	3. Nightmares

Nightmares plagued you through the night. Every time you closed your eyes, you felt Reaper’s presence darken your room. Your heart gave a tug as the scent of that musty, moldy cell seemed to rise from beneath you once again. Even when you thought you had gotten to sleep, your body would jerk to the imaginary kick of a Talon agent. You swore you could hear them screaming at you… berating you… taunting you.

 

Breathlessly, you bolted upright in bed after a particularly nasty flashback of the electric rod Reaper used on you. You felt through your gray t-shirt, expecting to find wounds hidden below, but found nothing. Not a bruise, not a cut, not even a scar. Angela somehow managed to take care of your concussion, too. Out of all her equipment, though, you wished she had something to cure nightmares.

 

You slipped out of bed after deciding thirty minutes of sleep weren’t worth all that trouble. The halls were dark, save the emergency lights  at each corner.  _ Maybe Jack is up,  _ you thought hopefully. You decided to give him a visit if he was. Of course, you’d have to find him first. The new base had been thrown up in relatively short time, you imagined, and you had no idea what led where. The idea of a midnight adventure seemed romantic in your mind. Often training took too much out of you for you to roam around at the quiet hours like you used to, but tonight, the Hanamura base was yours.

 

You wandered down the hall, fingers pressed to the cold metal walls, toes barely grazing the floor. You passed by silent rooms with the lights long since out. You gave them not as much as your ear pressed to the door; somehow, you felt that Jack was up. The tingling in your skin led you to a door on the right side of the hall, nearly at the end. A warm, dim light seeped through the cracked door.

 

Before your hand even touched it, a gruff voice said, “Come in.”

 

The door heeded your fingers and glided open. Jack was propped up in bed, flipping through holographic screens with disinterest written all over his scarred face. He looked up at you. “Tough time sleeping?”

 

It was strange seeing his mouth move. He wore his mask most times, so you had almost never seen his face before. You leaned against the archway, nodding. Being in another person’s presence softened your anxiousness a bit. “I can’t get it to leave me be for more than ten minutes.”

 

He closed out the screens floating before him. “Things like this will keep you up for a few nights, then you’ll be able to push it out enough to sleep.” He gave a friendly smile. “I know you will.”

 

You pulled your hair back and then shook it free, rustling it with your hand. Your heart dropped a little. You wanted to talk to him about it more. “Yeah, I will. Thanks.” You turned to leave, but he stopped you short.

 

“Come talk to me after you’ve fought it out for a while. Your weapon’s in Angela’s office.”

 

You smiled. He could see right through you sometimes. Halfway out the door, you stuck your head back in the room. Jack had his nose back in his screens.

 

“The first hallway on the right, all the way down on the end.”

 

“Thanks, Jack,” you laughed.

 

You shut his door and quietly began to make your way toward what you presumed was the medical center. Not a sound was heard all throughout the base. You couldn’t believe nobody was even out to get a midnight snack. Admittedly, however, you were hopeful that you wouldn’t see anyone. You didn’t think you could handle any big hugs or questions about your health anymore. Of course, a visit from Tracer could have been nice. She usually knew when to put her bubbliness aside and just sit with you.

 

You came up on a large, square room whose walls were glass from floor to ceiling, save the metal corner supports. Inside were metal boxes, bins, and cabinets all marked by a golden cross. A few beds lay on the opposite end of the room from you, with bare IV drip stands and blank heart monitors. You wondered why you hadn’t been in there while you were asleep. As you walked down the aisle in the middle of the room, you pondered slipping a look at some files beside a microscope on one of the desks in there. Medical things always interested you. Of course, that would mean spying on your team, and you didn’t want to do that.

 

You continued on toward the archway at the end of the room. You could see through the glass that Angela was still in the process of getting organized. Papers were strewn all about her office, some screens still open from when she left that night, unpacked boxes of files piled in the corner. It was impressive that she managed to save that much from the night Talon raided their Gibraltar base.

 

Immediately, you spotted your staff. Seeing it made your heart a little lighter. Standing tall in the corner, its crystal top shone beautifully even in the dim light. The room fell away as you picked it up, remembering the day it was given to you.

 

It was during your first week stationed at Gibraltar, only a month or so after you were first recruited into Overwatch. Angela had studied you a bit during training. The consensus was that you had immense trouble controlling your abilities by yourself. As a gift and as a training aid, the team had gotten together and created a staff that naturally pulled any elements you created within itself and expelled them from the opal rocks at its head. The staff itself was crafted from twenty types of metal and wood, each stacked atop one another, each picked by a member of Overwatch to commemorate its first-ever recruit to rise into its senior ranks. Genji had forged the entire thing himself, once everyone picked their pieces. The body was simple, with only a few dips and curves, and balanced at the bottom so the head was only slightly heavier. Genji’s metal, rhodium, had been warped into spirals that provided a decorative case around the opal stones.

 

It felt lighter in your hands than it had before. You smiled and shook your head. “Well, long time no see, beautiful.”

 

You began to wind your way through the base, looking for someplace to screw around for a bit. This one was similar to the Gibraltar complex, though it was much smaller. Hopefully the entrance would be near the common rooms. Of course, you needed to find those first…

 

You stopped and itched at your back. The metal pods embedded in your skin hadn’t given you much trouble since you woke up, but now they felt like they were trying to push themselves out of you. Frustrated, you leaned your staff against the wall and reached down your shirt. As you turned a bit, however, the feeling disappeared.

 

_ Strange, _ you thought. You shook it off, picked up your staff, and started down the hall again.

 

Finally you passed what looked to be a cozy little gathering room, fitted with a TV, some bookshelves, and plenty of seating options. Sure enough, just a few steps away was the clunky metal door. It opened like a pair of jaws after you pressed your thumb to a digital pad on its right.

 

Fresh night air flooded your senses. From what you had heard Genji say about where he grew up, that was definitely Hanamura. Beautiful moss-covered stone pathways curled around the mostly dirt ground, cherry blossom trees stood tall everywhere you looked, and the red-framed Shimada mansion sat before you. From what you could tell, the base took up a small section of the outskirts of the town just outside Shimada castle. You thought a city would be unfit for swinging a staff around, so you decided to investigate the traditional buildings in search of an open training room.

 

And off you went, the chill in the air making the hair on the back of your neck stand up. The stones were soft beneath your feet. Ahead was a small, open room with a large bell inside. There was barely enough room for you to stretch your staff out beside you there, so you kept looking.

 

Behind that room, a set of stairs were stuck into the side of a cliff, leading down to another, more open area. A grassy meadow was out to the right. To the left, another open room. Hopefully there wouldn’t be any gigantic bells inside.

 

The wind drew your hair off your neck. You smiled a bit as you felt light, only in a t-shirt and athletic shorts, air gliding under your feet as you jumped down off the stairs. Usually, your armor kept you from being quite as nimble as you’d like. Tonight, though, you were the breeze.

 

Stones led you to an enclosure like the one on the cliff above you. The bamboo floors were soft and springy, and there was plenty of room for you to swing your staff as you pleased.

 

You stood at its center. You brought your staff out in front of you, eyes closed, and balanced it. You wrapped each individual finger around it. You could feel the different materials beneath all of them. Torbjorn’s iron. Phara’s gold. Angela’s glass. Tracer’s cherry. You had memorized their placement. With each shift in smoothness, you breathed a little deeper. You felt someone else’s strength within you. That staff was not only something to help you craft your abilities with, it was a reminder of your family.

 

You practiced some balancing techniques at first. Then you began jabbing at the empty air, practicing leaps and twists and kick combinations that you’d probably never use in actual combat. All it did was make you more frustrated. You craved something more. In the back of your mind, Reaper was laughing at you. Laughing at your failed attempts at escaping. Laughing at your pathetic excuse for fighting.

 

You shook your head. Why was this so personal to you? Reaper didn’t want you, he wanted Jack. He just wanted the newbie to crack under pressure is all. He seemed so interested in you, though…

 

No. He just did that to get inside your head. You stretched out your hand, trying to think of something that would take your mind off of Reaper. Something involved enough to keep your body and your mind occupied.

 

Then, it hit you. You smiled as a little flame appeared in front of you. Even if it was small, it was a target. You made it fly around a bit to make sure you could control it. Once it passed the test, you began swinging at it like your life depended on it.

 

Before long, you were in a rhythm. It was like you were dancing. Punch, jab, swing, step, drop, kick, repeat. The flame followed you, or you followed the flame. You simply couldn’t tell. It was almost as if it had a mind of its own. You went on like that for almost an hour, just chasing a tiny fire, until the moon was halfway down the sky. You knew you needed to try to sleep again soon, but that was not the time. You loved training at night. Nobody was watching, the sun wasn’t burning your skin or your eyes, and most importantly, it was quiet. There was nothing you loved more than listening to your staff hiss through the air.

 

You heard something whistle by your ear and immediately dropped to the ground. You looked over to where you entered the enclosure and sighed, lowering your head to the ground.

 

“You should never stay still,” Hanzo said.

 

You shook your head. “And you shouldn’t shoot your teammates.”

 

He made his way over to you and offered you his hand. You thought it strange, but took it anyway. He pulled you to your feet. You weren’t really sure why he had come over at all.

 

“That was impressive,” he stated. “I assumed you were going to be bedridden for a few days.”

 

You grinned shyly. Though you were suspicious of his sudden interest in you, you gladly accepted his compliment. “Thank you. I couldn’t sleep, so I decided to have a midnight training session.”

 

He nodded. He remained silent for a moment. He scanned you, seemingly trying to think of something to say. “I do not understand you, (Y/N).”

 

Your smile fell. “What do you mean?”

 

“You train with us as if you do not belong. Yet a moment ago, you looked like you had mastered your skill years ago. You are much stronger than you let on.”

 

The smile returned, this time with some heat. “I… thank you.” You looked around. Hopefully, a good answer would drop from the ceiling any second. “I’ve had this under control for a while, I suppose, but I don’t want to accidentally hurt anyone.”

 

His calculating eyes roamed you again. That hadn’t quite clicked for him. “Hm. We shall see if you surprise me again.”

 

You raised a brow. “Surprise you?”

 

“I had you pegged for a science project that would be sent home when Angela was finished with you.” 

 

Your eyes dropped to the ground. That’s what it had felt like.

 

“I am glad you have proven me wrong.”

 

You looked up at him again, only in time to see him leaving.

 

“Hey, Hanzo,” you called. A new seed of confidence had planted itself in your chest.

 

He looked over his shoulder.

 

“Why did you stay in my room that long?”

  
His face remained solid. You had hoped for a little glimmer of nervousness, but you had hoped for too much. “The incense. It was my last bundle.”


	4. IMPORTANT

Hi friends! I'm unsatisfied with my story so far, so I'll be discontinuing it. BUT--big but here--I WILL be posting another because I got a really great idea for the main character's backstory. I will be changing it to a female OC because I'm not a huge fan of using second person. I'll be posting the link on my Tumblr (@o-ver-watch) and I'll comment it on here. Thank you all for reading and I hope to see you at the new one!


	5. SUPER IMPORTANT

HERE'S THE LINK TO MY NEW THING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I HOPE YOU ALL ENJOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Farchiveofourown.org%2Fworks%2F7820656&t=M2ZjM2ZiMzk5ZGJmOWQ3Njg4ODE2NzZhMDhkOWEzOWUzZTM5ZGY0ZCxsbjBpamhaSw%3D%3D


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